Van body with overhead side doors

ABSTRACT

A van-type truck body having rear doors to enable a preloaded rack or cart of a size commensurate with the internal dimensions of the body to be loaded into the body combined with rollup-type overhead doors along each side of the van body to enable access to both longitudinal sides of the preloaded rack or cart throughout the longitudinal dimension thereof so that items to be delivered may be removed through the side doors. A slide-out step is provided below each side door to provide for easy access to items placed at the top of the preloaded rack or cart.

D United States Patent [m 3,572,815

[72] Inventor Ralph Hodges Hackney 858,283 6/1907 Heard 296/40 Washington, N.C. 3,135,544 6/1964 Mickey..... 296/24 [21] Appl. No. 841,529 3,416,836 12/1968 Swanby 296/148. M

ggfg :6 Primary Examiner- Phi1ip Goodman Assignee J. A Hackney & Sons Inc. Att0rneys-Clarence A. O Brien and Harvey B. Jacobson [54] ODY WIT}! OVERHEAD SIDE RS ABSTRACT: A van-type truck body having rear doors to enaarms, 11 Drawing Figs.

ble a preloaded rack or cart of a size commensurate with the [52] US. Cl 296/40, internal dimensions of the body to be loaded into the body 296/155 combined with rollup-type overhead doors along each side of [51] Int. Cl B60j 5/08 the van body to enable access to both longitudinal sides of the [50] Field of Search 296/40, 155 relo ded ra k or can throughout the longitudinal dimension thereof so that items to be delivered may be removed through [56] References cued the side doors. A slide-out step is provided below each side UNITED STATES PATENTS door to provide for easy access to items placed at the top of 2,866,663 12/ 1930 Ashford 296/155 the preloaded rack or cart.

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Ralph H. Hackney 8 0W x I 5 8 l u VAN BODY WITH OVERHEAD SIDE DOORS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to the delivery of various items to customers of department stores, furniture stores, appliance stores and the like and more particularly relates to a van-type body having a plurality of rollup side doors and a rear door assembly to enable total access to the items loaded into the body along both longitudinal sides thereof.

2. Description of the Prior Art Delivery trucks such as those employed to deliver items to customers of establishments such as department stores and the like employ van-type bodies having rear access doors. The delivery truck will be routed in a particular manner and the items will be loaded into the truck body so that the item or itemsto be delivered first will be the last items or items loaded into the body so that access may be had thereto by the delivery men by opening the rear access door. One of the existent problems which reduces the efficiency of the delivery system is the relatively high incidence of nondeliverable items due to various circumstances such as the customer not being at home and not leaving instructions for delivery of the item. Under these circumstances, the item must be returned to the warehouse for delivery at a later date. When this occurs, each time a subsequent delivery is made, the undelivered item or items must be removed, placed on the street, while a subsequent item is being delivered and then replaced in the truck body which requires considerably more time and effort and reduces the efficiency of the delivery system and frequently results in damage to the items involved.

Also, loading of the truck body at the warehouse under these circumstances requires the presence of the truck body at the warehouse so that during the loading operation, the truck is idled and the operator of the truck is usually idled. This leads to congestion at the warehouse dock, inefiicient utilization of the truck and inefficient utilization of personnel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention provides a truck body having a rear access door assembly and a multiple of rollup side doors extending throughout the length of each side of the van-type body. This enables the items loaded into the truck to be unloaded from the side doors so that an item may be unloaded from any point longitudinally along either side of the van body by merely opening the appropriate rollup side door and unloading the item at street level.

This arrangement enables nondeliverable items to be retained in their loaded position and subsequent delivery of other items without disturbing the nondeliverable item thereby materially increasing the efficiency of the delivery system from the standpoint of saving time and labor involved in continually handling nondeliverable items and also reduce damage to nondeliverable items which occurs due to multiple handling thereof.

This invention also incorporates the use of a preloaded rack or cart which closely fits into the interior of the van body and which may be easily rolled into or out of the van body through the rear access door thereby enablingwarehouse men to preload the rack without requiringthe presence of the truck body at the warehouse dock thereby increasing the efficiency of the warehouse operation by enabling a rack to be preloaded without requiring the presence of the van body and to enable the rack to be easily and rapidly removed with any nondeliverable item thereon when the truck returns to the warehouse and a preloaded rack inserted into the van-type truck body so that very little time is required for the truck to be unloaded and reloaded for travelling along a subsequent delivery route.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. ii is a perspective view of the van-type truck body with the rear access door and side doors in closed position.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view similar to FIG. I with all of the doors in open position.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view similar to FIG. I with one of the rollup side doors open and the slide-out step associated therewith in extended position.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the rear portion of the van body illustrating its association with the warehouse dock and a rack or cart which may be easily inserted into or removed from the van body.

FIG. 5 is a transverse, sectional view of the truck body illustrating the association of theoverhead rollup side doors and the overhead rollup rear door.

FIG. 6 is a detailed fragmental perspective view of one of the vertical posts illustrating longitudinal tie bars associated therewith. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a locking bar for retaining the preloaded rack or cart stationary in the truck body.

FIG. 8 is a detailed sectional view of the rear lower corner of the truck body illustrating the association of the lock bar, the preloaded rack and the truck body. FIG. 9 is a rear perspective view of the truck body, illustrating the use of pivot doors defining the rear access door to the truck body.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view of the rear cornerpost employed with the side hinged rear doors.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view illustrating the relationship of the upper edge of the roll-type door and roof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now specifically to the drawings, the van-type truck body of the present invention is generally designated by numeral 10 and is supported in a conventional manner from a truck construction which includes longitudinal chassis mem bers 12, supporting rear drive wheels I4, front steerable wheels 16, an operators cab 18, and other component conventional end truck structures. The details of the structure of the truck are not illustrated in that the van-type truck body may be incorporated into various types of trucks by using standard procedures for supporting truck bodies on a truck chassis. The truck body It) includes a roof 20, a front wall 22. sidewalls 24 and a rear wall 26. A supporting floor 28 is disposed horizontally above the chassis members 12 and combine with the other components of the truck body to enclose a load carrying space.

The sidewalls 24 are each provided with three large open areas 30, 32 and 34 with each of the open areas being closed by a rollup type overhead door 36. Each door 36 includes a plurality of longitudinal sections 38 hingedly interconnected by hinge structures 40 which represents conventional rolluptype overhead doors. The ends of the doors 36 are supported from facing channel-shaped tracks 42 which extend down alongside of each opening and laterally inwardly below the roof 20 as illustrated in FIG. 5. As illustrated, the tracks 42 are disposed in vertically spaced relation to each other so that when the side doors 36 opposite sides of the truck body are elevated, the doors will be disposed in vertically spaced relation. The door structures themselves are defined in more detail hereinafter, and are constructed so that the cargo carried in the load space will be protected from inclement weather and also be securely latched or locked for protection against theft.

The front of the opening or doorway 30 and the rear of the opening or doorway 34 are defined by corner members 44 (see FIG. 6) in the form of a rigid frame member having the channel tracks 42 incorporated therein with a curved corner member 45 attached thereto in any suitable manner. The opening or doorway 32 is delineated by vertical supporting posts as which also have channel tracks thereon. Each of the supporting posts 4-6 as well as the corner members 44 have a plurality of facing pairs of keyhole slots 48 formed therein for receiving the reduced ends St) of longitudinal tie bars 52. The tie bars 52 provide a tie point in the center of the doorway for securing portions of the load with a rope, strap or the like. The

position of the tie bars 52 is illustrated in FIG. 2 and the particular construction of one of the rear comer members 44 is illustrated in FIG. 6 in which the channel-shaped tracks 42 are combined into a rigid assembly. The supporting posts 46 will be of similar construction but opposed channel tracks and op posed keyhole slots are provided on each post 46.

With this construction, as illustrated in FIG. 3, any one or all of the side doors 36 may be opened and any one or all of the tie bars 52 may be removed to provide access to the interior of the enclosure and to items loaded therein throughout the length of the truck body along each side thereof. If an item to be unloaded is at the tope of the load carrying space, a slideout step 54 is provided below each open area 39, 32 and 34. The steps 54 are in the form of a rigid panel slidably supported by inwardly facing guides 56 defined by L-shaped members or angle iron members attached to the lower edge of the sidewalls structure 24 and the lower edges of the chassis member 12 as illustrated in FIG. 5. Any suitable latch structure may be provided for releasably retaining the slide-out steps 54 in their retracted position and in their extended position so that a person may pull out a step 54 and stand thereon to obtain an item placed high in the load-carrying body.

The rear wall 26 is provided with an enlarged open area 58 closed by a rear rollup-type overhead door 60 supported by opposed channel-shaped tracks 42 which are disposed below the roof 20 and down the interior edges of the rear corner members 44 with the door 60 being disposed above the side doors 36 when in their overhead position.

As illustrated in FIG. the rear door 60 is of the same construction as the side doors 36 and includes a plurality of relatively narrow panels 64 interconnected by hinge structures 66.

' The lowermost panel 65 has a rubber bottom sealing strip or bumper 63 engaged with the floor or an extension thereof as at 79. Also, a recessed handle or handgrip 69 is incorporated therein to facilitate opening and closing of the door. The uppermost panel of the rear door 60 is provided with an outwardly and downwardly inclined resilient sealing flap 67 and an inwardly and upwardly inclined flange 71 for rigidifying the door. Conventional lock structures may be provided to adequately protect the cargo being carried by the truck body. The truck body is supported and braced in a conventional manner with the floor 23 being supported by transverse support beams 72 which are supported from the chassis members 12 by longitudinal support members 74 and corner bracing or reinforcing members 75 are provided along each side of the truck body with the framing and bracing being of sufficient strength to adequately support the truck body from the chassis members 12 and to retain the truck body in substantially a rigid position to withstand the normal forces encountered by such a van truck during over-the-road transport of various items.

FIG. 9 illustrates a van truck body with a pair of doors 76 extending vertically in the opening in the rear wall with hinge structures 78 hingedly supporting each rear door 76 at its outer side edge thereof to the comer member 44. The meeting edges of the doors 76 are interconnected by a suitable latch and lock device 80 to retain the side hinged doors 76 in closed position. Thus, the rear door assembly may be either a side hinge door assembly as illustrated in FIGS. 9 and or an overhead door assembly illustrated in FIGS. 1-8 and ll of the drawings with it being necessary that the rear door assembly provides free access into the interior of the load-carrying space.

The open rear of the truck body provided by the rear door assembly 60 or the rear doors 76 enables a rack or cart generally designated by the numeral 82 to be easily rolled into or removed from the truck body 10 as illustrated in FIG. 4. The rack or cart includes a supporting floor 84 provided with rollers or wheels 36 thereon and a skeleton framework 88 rigid therewith to provide a support for a plurality of items to be delivered. This enables the rack 82 to be placed in the warehouse and preloaded by warehousemen and then rolled onto a loading dock 90 and quickly loaded into the van truck body it) when it is in loading position at the dock as illustrated in FlG. 4. Thus, assuming that the truck in FIG. 4 has just delivered all of theitems, the rack 82 that is empty may be quickly removed from the truck body and a preloaded rack rolled from the dock 90 onto the floor 28 of the truck body. The rack 82 has an external dimension substantially equal to the internal dimensions of the enclosed space of the truck body and a locking bar 92 is provided for positioning across the rear of the truck body to retain the rack 82 immovable within the truck body when loaded. The locking bar 92 includes reduced ends 94 with one of the reduced ends 9 3 being slidable and spring biased outwardly by a compression spring so that the reduced ends 94 or pins are received in circular holes 98 formed in the rear corner members 44. A handle H00 is provided on the movable end 94 and extends through a slot R02 to enable retraction of the movable end 94 to enable assembly and disassembly of the locking rod 92 across the load carrying space of the load body and rearwardly of the rack $2 as illustrated in FIG. 8 to retain the rack in position in the truck body and prevent relative shifting therebetween.

In the use of the present invention, racks 82 are preloaded at the warehouse with vertical posts and horizontal bars incorporating therein adjusted to accommodate items of various sizes. The preloaded racks are rolled into the truck body and secured in place in a very short time. The truck is then driven to a point of delivery of an item and one of the six rollup side doors is opened and most items can be reached by standing at street level but if necessary, a slide out step may be extended while a higher item is being moved. If items of extra length are to be delivered such as rolled carpet or the like, they may be loaded at the top of the preloaded rack or at any other point thereon and accessible from the rear of the rack so that the rear door can be opened for access to extra length items. The items may be quickly and easily secured in the rack at the warehouse to provide for maximum protection of merchandise. A load itinerary provided for the driver shows him the exact location of each item listed by the best delivery sequence. The driver then spends full time making deliveries rather than being idle while loading and unloading at a dock. If items are nondeliverable and must be returned to the warehouse, they do not impede access to other items due to the six rollup doors which provides total access to the load along each side thereof. The returned items are quickly and easily unloaded by removing the rack when the truck returns to the dock. Thus, this eliminates rearrangement of the loaded items by deliverymen when one of the items is not deliverable. The preloaded rack fits snugly into the truck body and locks into place so that the rack will be stable even when the truck is driven over rough pavement. With the items secured to the rack and the rack secured to the truck body, the load is more secure than in conventional van bodies thus reducing damage. The truck body will have various required safety features incorporated therein in any suitable manner such as signal lights, running lights and the like and a central locking system may be provided for each set of side doors or any suitable type of lock mechanism may be provided for each set of side doors or any suitable type of lock mechanism may be provided for the doors to protect the cargo.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.

lclaim:

l. A van-type truck body for use in delivering items at a piurality of delivery points in a route, comprising a generally rectangular hollow body enclosing a load-carrying space defined by generally parallel sidewalls, end walls, roof and substantially flat floor with the enclosed space being free of obstructions throughoutits extent, said body including access door means at the rear end thereof to provide access to the space, and a plurality of rollup overhead doors along each side of said body, said doors occupying substantially the entire length of each sidewall to provide access to the load carrying space substantially throughout the length of each side of the space thereby enabling items to be loaded into the space through the rear access door means and unloaded from either side of the load space at substantially any longitudinal point therealong each of said rollup overhead doors including generally right angular guide members, each guide member including a vertical portion extending vertically of the sidewall and a horizontal portion extending under the roof, the horizontal portions of the guide members for the doors on opposite sides of the body being disposed in overlying relation whereby a major portion of the rollup doors on opposite sides of the body are disposed in overlying relation under the roof when in open position.

2 The structure as defined in claim 1 wherein said overhead doors are completely independent of each other and individually openable and closable.

3. The structure as defined in claim 2 wherein each of said rollup doors is provided with opposed vertical frames having tracks incorporated therein defining guides for the rollup doors and removable means extending between the vertical frames for providing tie points in the doorway for securing portions of the load with an anchoring rope or the like.

4. The structure as defined in claim 2 wherein said rear access door means is a rollup-type overhead door.

5. The structure as defined in claim I together with a recessable step means underlying each of the side access door to enable an item at the upper end of the load space to be removed. 

1. A van-type truck body for use in delivering items at a plurality of delivery points in a route, comprising a generally rectangular hollow body enclosing a load-carrying space defined by generally parallel sidewalls, end walls, roof and substantially flat floor with the enclosed space being free of obstructions throughout its extent, said body including access door means at the rear end thereof to provide access to the space, and a plurality of rollup overhead doors along each side of said body, said doors occupying substantially the entire length of each sidewall to provide access to the load carrying space substantially throughout the length of each side of the space thereby enabling items to be loaded into the space through the rear access door means and unloaded from either side of the load space at substantially any longitudinal point therealong each of said rollup overhead doors including generally right angular guide members, each guide member including a vertical portion extending vertically of the sidewall and a horizontal portion extending under the roof, the horizontal portions of the guide members for the doors on opposite sides of the body being disposed in overlying relation whereby a major portion of the rollup doors on opposite sides of the body are disposed in overlying relation under the roof when in open position.
 2. The structure as defined in claim 1 wherein said overhead doors are completely independent of each other and individually openable and closable.
 3. The structure as defined in claim 2 wherein each of said rollup doors is provided with opposed vertical frames having tracks incorporated therein defining guides for the rollup doors and removable means extending between the vertical frames for providing tie points in the doorway for securing portions of the load with an anchoring rope or the like.
 4. The structure as defined in claim 2 wherein said rear access door means is a rollup-type overhead door.
 5. The structure as defined in claim 1 together with a recessable step means underlying each of the side access door to enable an item at the upper end of the load space to be removed. 